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LIBERTY'S 



CENTENNIAL; 



A POEM OF 1876. 



BY ZAVARR WILMSHURST 



(Pi 









^ iehj fork : 

L PUBLISHED BY STEPHEN ENGLISH, 
^ No 137 Broadway. 



Entered according to Ac* of Congress, fai the year 1876, by Zavarr Wilmshbest, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at "Washington. 



CAULON PaiNT, 47 LIBERTY ST., N. T. 






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LIBERTY'S CENTENNIAL. 



SPELL steals o'er my troubled mind 
With beaming dew like Eden's haze, 
Until my heart, to fate resigned, 

"Like heaven burns with love and praise : 
A rosy life in silver calm, 

More gentle than the rays aloft. 
Sinks on my soul and eyes with balm 

And blessing holy, pure and soft ; 
The mystery of this serene 
Seems all divine ; what may it mean 
To flesh and blood ? The tender light 
Gives archangelic strength to sight, 
To stretch beyond the farthest sun, 
And past and present view as one ; 
Ay, ages pierce ere they have birth, 
O'erlooking all as eagles earth. 
And set the fettered senses free 
Till e'en the blind from birth can see. 
That light, from neither sun nor moon, 
I drink as life ; I feel it soon 
From the Immortal Inmost roll, 
And grandly flow from soul to soul. 



Libeety's Centennial; 

II. 

That light nnveils such forms as ne'er 
Before have beamed on human eyes, 
For while their sweet majestic air 

More depth and glory lends the skies, 
Their sphere transfuses ambient things 
Till they have life and hope and wings : 
The very air is all alive 
With fairy souls which burn and strive 
For deeper insight, keener sense, 
And more refined intelligence. 
Pure virgin forms sublime and fair, 
The fountains of high thought stand there, 
I knew — as through the clouds they loomed 
In beauty of the rose just bloomed — 
Each shape of grace in which combined 
Both love and wisdom were enshrined. 
And as in groups they circled round, 
With wreaths of leaves and flowers bound. 
Their eyes in which their glory shone, 
Made to my heart their titles known. 
Before their cherubim unrolled 
Symbolic gonfalons of gold. 
With stars embossed whose diamond flames 
Spell all the best and greatest names 
Of men by whom God' s work was done 
Like England's Alfred and our Washington. 

III. 
What means this mighty congregation ? 

What are its godlike joys or cares ? 
Await these groups in expectation 

Of presence more benign than theirs ? 



A Poem of 1876. 

Where loveliest hues to life have grown, 
They cluster round yon rainbow throne, 

In perfect order's disarray — 
Those powers of nature, thought and mind 
Into angelic forms refined ; — 

What could be more divine than they ? 
There Science stands with look serene, 
And there assembled round their queen, 
Her handmaids pause in thought profound. 
Which neither space nor time can bound : 
The distant sun, the atom nigh, — 
This globe some million years gone by, — 
The laws of nature, peace, war, thought, — 
Whatever God or man hath wrought, 
Which we rank high or dare despise, — 
They measure, weigh or analyze. 



IV. 

Nor from deep Science far apart, 
Stands her untiring sister Art : 
Around her gather graceful forms 
Whose genius heightens Nature's charms : 
Painting whose colors live and glow ; 

Sculpture whose marble breathes and thinlvs 
Music whose tones from Heaven flow ; 

And Poesy that beauty drinks : 
Goddess of comfort and of health — 
Spirit of commerce and of wealth — 
Sweet angel of the polar star, 
Guiding our ocean homes afar — 
Electric sprites, thought's lightning team,— 
Ye iron powers of heat and steani^ 



Liberty' s Centennial ; 

Fair Queen of Corn and fruitful fields — 
Thou Fury, who war's thunder wields — 
Here are ye all ! and dear to view, 
Is here not pure Religion, too, 
With Learning and Philosophy, 
Instead of black Hypocrisy, 
And sanguinary Bigotry ? 

y. 

Sublimer beings never blended 

Since morning stars together sang — 
Before whose glory have they bended ? 
Upon whose blessing do they hang ? 
Look to the shrine of cloud and light ! — 
Its hues grow more intensely bright ; 
It trembles with ecstatic fire, 
And almost bursts with its desii'e. 
Freshness and hope together start, 
And rapture spreads through every heart. 
And all the foes of knowledge flee 
Before the dawn of Liberty. 
She comes ! No other form in space 
Wears such a sweet and daring grace, 
Nor Error's throne with lightning shakes. 
The soul and body's fetters breaks, 
vVnd raises man, by tyrants trod, 
Above earth's kings and next to God. 

VI. 

Her brow the stamp of Heaven bore ; 

Its blessings in her glances glowed ; 
Her lips its rosy beauty wore ; 

Its nectar in her accents flowed ; 



A Poem of 1876. 

Her hair and robes in lustre streamed ; 
Her limbs like love incarnate beamed, 
And moved in music. Then the throng- 
Let its heart- worship How in song. 



VII. 

"Hail, goddess, dear! whose quenchless strife 
First won for us the right to be : 
We thank thee for our birth and life, 
And for thyself, sweet Liberty ! 

" A virgin beauty from this land, 

Thou sprang' st a hundred years ago, 
And bar'd'st thy radiant arm and brand, 
And let'st thy blood in battle flow. 

"For seven long years ye fought and bled. 
Thyself and many a chosen son, 
And when your haughty foemen fled. 
The world' s true glory had begun. 

" Science and Art, which form this ring, 
The wondrous industries of man. 
Sprang up and bloomed like flowers in Spring- 
Along thy steps which led the van. 

" Thy work to spread shall never cease 
Till despotism shall reign no more 
Upon the earth : then cometh peace, 
A perfect peace, but not before." 



Liberty's Centennial; 

VIII. 

The singers cease the air to swell 

With vocal rapture while the line, 
In stately march, to Music's shell, 

Files singly by the cloudy shrine. 
Each lays a wreath and offering meet 
In adoration at the feet 

Of her they love, — 
The dauntless power whose sword and shield 
Had made the universe a field 

For them to rove. 
They form a circle broad and deep, 
To give an ample verge and sweep 
To all the scenic pageantry 
Of their historic play 
In honor of the day. 
The hundredth natal day of Liberty. 

IX. 

The drama of the world and man. 

Which not a truth or lesson lackt^d. 
Though ages rolled in moments' sjian 

Was then performed in flowing act : — 
Man's climbing from the age of caves 

Till he his Maker's flight overtook. 
And glanced o'er the ^gean waves, 

A god in spirit and in look ! 
Fair Greece, where Beauty" s forms surpassed 

All earth had known or e'er shall know ; 
Where Plato pierced the dark and vast, 

And Poesy had grandest flow : — 



A PoKM OF 1876. ( 

The goddess saw, with loving smile, 

For they are dear to Liberty, 
But oft she sighed to mark the while, 

The ruling race alone was free. 
She kindled at the patriot fire 

In Regiihis' and Brutus' veins. 
Yet saw, alas I with grief and ire, 

Rome, free herself, bind earth in chains. 

X. 

The age of chivalry regaled 

Her love of daring and romance, — 
When nobly woman's charms prevailed, 

And won her rank with man's advance : — 
When placed their rights the barons mailed 

Above a monarch's whim or chance, 
And from King John their Ciiarter wrung, 

A moment she looked glad and high. 
But still to millions serfdom clung. 

And made her droop again and sigh. 
E'en when the rigid Puritan 

For freedom of religion fought. 
And braved the law, the king, the ban. 

The judge, the stake, and fondly sought 
A home among a savage race. 

Where death by cold and famine wrong) it, 
Yet he to others grudged the grace 

Of worshipping as conscience taught. 
Men knew the Phrygian cap and robe, 

But not a home for Liberty 
Or birth-place for her on this globe, 

In town or desert, land or sea. 



10 Liberty's Centennial ; 

XI. 

But there were spirits East and West, 

Arising with mind's growino; day. 
Who, born for progress, vanward pressed— 

In England, Pitt, Burke, Fox, Baire ; 
At home, grand men of simple mien. 

Brave Otis, Hancock, Jeffeison, 
Jay, Patrick Henry, Adams, Deane, 

Penn, Franklin, Lee and Wasliington, 
Who were but spokesmen for Jlie ivst, 

Whose hearts to freedom beat the same. 
And stood in want and war the test. 

As well as those who rose to fame. 



At last a land in readiness — 

A nation burning for the hour 
When Liberty should rise to bless 

With all her privilege and powei- 
The poor, the rich, the high, the low, 

Let favoring Heaven her birth-day tix — 
This day a hundred years ago. 

Our glorious Fourth and Seventy-Six. 

XII. 

Heroes of old ! can we conceive. 

Who boast your battles fought and won. 
How grand it then was to believe 

What ye achieved could e'er be ilone ? 
An infant nation, hardly born, 

To brave the mightiest of all, 
Cast off its royal yoke with scorn, 

And on its hosts like lightning fall. 



A Poem of 1876. 11 

Seemed madness e'en to warmest friends ; 

But still the hardest task was found 
To wait long years for noble ends 

Hope fain had compassed at a bound : 
Here Washington maintained supreme 

His rank as father of the land, 
And other chieftains children seem 

Before his god-like self-command. 

XIII. 

To fight in rags and wretched plight, 

This made our heroes doubly great — 
To wait, starve, freeze, and not to light. 

This was the sternest test of fate : 
Then Liberty, although she wept, 

Breathed deepest love their souls throughout, 
And near her heart her children kept, 

Till struck the hour for battle shout. 
For then she knew tliere was no need 

To sons of hers by honor led 
Of fire for courage, spur for speed. 

To charge the hireling ranks of red. 

XIV. 

Oh, what but victory could wait 

On land so staunch and men so true ? 
What is for them reserved by fate 

But greatness such as earth ne'er knew ? 
The ancient spell of tyranny 

Is broken by the bolts they hurled : 
They send the torch of Liberty, 

A sun of manhood, round the world. 



12 Liberty's Centennial ; 

The sciences beneath their sway, 
Become as free as liglit of day ; 
And stoojjing from the kingly dome, 
Arts comfort bring to every home : 
Wealth flows profuse from countless shoies, 
And one hand does the work of scores : 
Lightning to Franklin's will submits; 
For Morse from land to land it flits, 
Bearing our thoughts the world around, 
As quickly as the thought can bound. 
Fulton makes steam our potent slave, 
To take us swiftly o'er the wavn ; 
And Stephenson, with iron rein, 
Tames it to speed us o'er the plain ; 
Till time and distance cease to bar. 
And there seems naught on earth afar, 
And nations thus together drawn 
In peace foresee millennial dawn. 



XV. 

Then Liberty to rest from toil, 

Rose to her home in heaven once more. 
Why do the angels all recoil. 

As if death's pestilence she boi'e ? 
Is not the soul and body pure 

Of their sweet sister Libert^^ '. 
Ah, no! or how could she endure 

The foul blight of blacK slaveiy ? 
She gazed down on her robe of white — 
The dark stain met her aching sight. 
She heard God thunder from his throne — 
' ' Why com' st thou back before thy work is done ?' ' 



A Poem of 1876. 13 



XVI. 

Then back the godde^ss turns in shame, 

And from her eyes a tonvnt streams. 
Ah ! must she wrap in death and flame, 

The idol of her fondest dreams — 
The land she loved and nursed — her own — 

With ruthless anarchy profane — 
With shattered homes and corpses strewn 

Of brothers by their brothers slain ? 

* * * -,^ -.V 

From heroism of right and wrong 

Springs countless brave and deathless deeds 
The war is bloody, fierce and long. 

And e'en the victor's spirit bleeds, 
(As if the gore were all his own ), 
To view the field so dearly won. 
But despots gloat and hope in vain ; 
They ne'er shall hail such strife again: 
It is the final sacrifice 
That draws the blessing from the skies 
Forever and forever ! 
Yet in the stern endeavor 
The soul of Liberty is shaken 

As Bi'utus was his sons to doom 
AVhen they for Tarquin had forsaken 

Their duty to their mother, Rome, 
Or rather — ranging ages back — 
As Abraham's heart was on the lack 
Wlien he o'er Isaac raised the knife, 
In faith sublime, to take his darling's life. 



14 Liberty' s Centenintial ; 

xyii. 

The drama o'er, the shapes of air 
Melt softly from the circle' s gaze ; 

Then flows as pure as seraph's prayer, 
A song of fond and burning praise. 

" Hail Liberty ! thou image true 
Of God who longing never knew 
Except to bathe all souls in dew 
Of his pure happiness. 

"Thou art more precious e'en than sight, 
More holy than sweet heaven's light, 
For, wanting thee, tliey do but blight 
The spirit they should bless. 

"If they but show the gilded chain. 
They make the soul itself disdain. 
And wealth and beauty woo in vain 
To quench its rebel Are. 

"Thy robe is now without a stain. 
And thine own land, from main to main, 
A slave to naught shall bear again. 
Save to his own desire. 

"All misers are the slaves of dust, — 
All libertines the slaves of lust, — 
And tyrants slaves to fearful trust, — 
The good alone are free. 

" Let all men worship at thy shrine, — 
All souls be free and pure as thine, — 
All earth a brotherhood divine 
As sons of Liberty." 



A Poem of 1876. 15 

XYIII. 

As ceased the strain, the goddess bowed 
With smile and blush of Spring, 

And answered from her rosy cloud, 
With voice of trumpet ring. 

And brow whose darkening shades avowed 
Her spirit's wrath and sting. 

XIX. 

" I thank you, sisters ! This is kind, 

In honor meant and done, 
Though you are to my failures blind, 

And o'er my faults have run, 
I am not thankless for the past, 

Nor for the present grace, 
But truth is truth — although it blast — 

Which duty bids me face. 
I will not glory as I might 

In nations free in name, 
And conquests gained by truth and right, 

Which spread my realm and fame ; 
Nor even in the homage paid 

This day in wealth of art. 
All countries on the shrine have laid 

Of manhood's noblest start : 
For now to grief my spirit yields ; 

Despair my soul commands ; 
The blood I shed on many fields 

Seems poured on desert sands. 
Returns it naught ? Alas ! alas ! 

Behold the crop it brings ! 
In Lethe' s slime and rotting grass 

There crawl no viler things." 



IH Liberty's Centennial ; 

XX. 

Tlie goddess waved the clouds aside 

That cnrtamed earth beh)w : 
The scene disclosed would sicken pride 

Durst we its foulness show. 
Those gazing spirits wept and blushed, 

And Liberty herself, 
Shame-stricken, seemed a Hower crushed, 

To view such heartless pelf. 
At last her rage in speech took form, 
And thus swept on the plaintive storm. 

XXI. 

" Oh, sisters, bear with me awhile ! 

Ye know what I have done for these. 
For them I met the force and guile 

Of the proud empress of the seas. 
Till now to own I never deigned 

Her nobles noblest were b^' fai- 
Of all who land and title gained 

By valor, statecraft, bench or bar : 
And yet my homespuns I inspired 

With the calm wisdom of the gods, — 
Tlieir simple hearts with courage fired 

To fight them 'gainst all chance and odds: 
Ay, wrest the palm of victory 

Prom titled chiefs and scarlet hosts. 
And force them wifcli humility 

To own defeat and quit our coasts. 
But ne'er of this should I complain, 

For it was wild delight to me 
T(j charge with Allen, Marion, Wayne, 

Gates, Putnam, Sumpter, Pickens, Lee, 



A Poem of 1876. 17 

Kalb, Kosciuszko, LaFayette, 

Pulaski, Moultive, Steuben, Greene, 
And other hearts which I had set 

On honor pure as heaven's sheen : 
But what are these that yonder breatlie 

To sicken glory at its noon '. 
Must I again the sword unsheathe, 

Or fly from man like Daniel Boone '. 

XXII. 

"But, ah ! my rending sacrifice, 

Like that the gospels sternly teach 
Of our offending hands and eyes 

For worse to me than death to reach — 
Was made when sent by Heaven above 

To seal my own integrity, 
I crushed the darlings of my love, 

The dauntless Southern chivalry, — 
The frank, hospitable and free. 

The eloquent, high-mettled, rash. 
The sons of Marion, Sumpter, Lee, 

Who thought to conquer at a dash. 
They swept the field, but at my call, 

The hardy sons of toil came forth ; 
Heroes defeat could not appal 

Poured from the East, the West, the North, — 
Earth's children who from every fall 

Gained for the field redoubled worth. 
The Red Sea close at Pharaoh's heels — 

The lava-ocean's fiery mouth, 
Devoured as did my hosts the fields 

And grand old homesteads of the South. 



18 Liberty's Centennial ; 

Ruled by its slaves of yesterday, 

Its chivalry seems now a dream, 
And yet again that race I say 

In generous manhood stood supreme : 
But they had waked supernal wrath, 

And chafed and fretted for their doom, 
And from perfection barred my path : 

At last I crushed them ! and for whom ? 



XXIII. 

" Not for yon crawling things that drain 

Their country's breast and taint her breath, 
Till for her children there remain 

But want, starvation, toil and death. 
What ! while the land beneath the weight 

Of mountain war-debt lies half dead. 
And toil that early plies and late, 

Can for its darlings scarce earn bread — 
While every nerve is strained to save 

The nation from dishonor's brand, 
And for the dragon build a grave — 

The huge tax — that devours the land — 
At such aTi hour — oh, shame in woe, 

Not Death himself can lower sink ! 
Can Old World tyrants scorn forego, 

While from my country's sons I shrink. 
Who gain its offices of trust 

To waste, corrupt, despoil and steal, 
And grind the people in the dust, 

Worse than old England's despot heel? 



A Poem of 1876. 19 



XXIV. 

" Around the chief corruptions swarm, 

And littered through the land are found 
Things holding places soft and warm 

Wliere ease and plunder most abound, 
Reckless if honest labor pine, 

Or cheated Indians starve and freeze, 
Or sinks the nation, while they mine 

In stealth and plot in fraud to seize 
The hard-earned gains, the fruits of toil. 

The country's life, as party's spoil." 
The goddess paused ; and then resumed 

With eyes of lightning and a tone 
Which earth with terror's gleam illumed 

And thrilled its mortals to the bone. 



XXVI. 

"I will not deem such ruthless thieves 
The sons of the majestic sires 
I loved in youth. My heart believes 

Their souls crawled up from lower fires. 
A harder struggle now comes on 
Than I as yet have ever won : 
On every son of mine I call 
To save this country from the thrall 
Far baser than the rule of kings, 
The fleecing of Corruption's rings. 
My records of one Arnold tell. 
But thousands now their country sell : 
They boast they never master owned, 
But in their hearts sits Mammon throned ; 



20 Liberty's Centennial. 

No fetter on their limbs remains, 
But still their spirits are in chains. 
What ! all ? No ! Ever no repeat ! 
Tlie hearts of Seventy-six still beat — 
Its blood as pure as ever runs 
In veins of millions of my sons. 
Oh, let them rise and follow me, 
And make their country truly free ! 
Not w^ith the cannon thunder rolls 
But with the weapons of their souls. 
And where I take my stand — the polls. 

XXVII. 

" But let reform at home begin, 

Cast from the heart the idol gold, 
And hold the vanity a sin 

Which scoffs at simple ways of old ! 
My daughters countless millions waste 
To dress in foreign silk and taste, 
And look with scorn upon the maid 
As plainly as myself arrayed : 
Does not their country need their aid ? 
Oh, let them think what they might do, 
Would they the old-time thrift renew ! 

XXVIII. 

'' To ape superbness — call it style — 
Or rather this republic's curse — 
Oh, could ye see how weakly vile 

It is this vanity to nurse, 
And sell the soul in lust to be 
Ranked with a sham gentility I 



A Poem of 1876. 21 

First take that bauble hence, and then 

No longer children be but men. 

Hold it far nobler to maintain 

Your state as Cincinnatus plain, 

And spotless truth and manhood wear. 

Than be earth's greatest millionaire. 

Bt- pure yourselves and sternly bent 

The pure alone shall represent 

Your honor in the halls of state, 

And hold in trust your country's fate. 

To each this duty I confide, 

And if from coldness, fear or pride, 

You let the base even make my laws, 

Then are you traitors to my cause ; ' 

But stand by me as I by you 

In calm and tempest, staunch and true, 

Have stood and fought these hundred years, 

Then farewell tears and farewell fears ! 

ril make this land I love so well 

E'en Plato's brightest dream excel ; 

And when my age repieats this time, 

And seeds I sow in every clime, 

Beneatli your glory ripening fast. 

Make earth my paradise at last, 

War' s flag shall be forever furled, 

And my republic be the world." 

XXIX. 

She ceased as from the heavens burst 

A swell of music like the roar 
Of hosts angelic when they first 

Sang " Death and Hell shall be no more !" 



92 Libeett' s Centennial ; 

And looking, I perceived, amazed, 
That all the skies with glory blazed, 
With cherubim and seraphim, 
And though my sight grew quickly dim, 
I saw within an opening sun. 
The god-like form of Washington, 
And with his smile benign impressed, 
I sank into unconscious rest. 



